Sexual orientation and drive: a comparative pilot study on sexual desire

Many studies addressing sexual drive and hypersexuality stated that homosexuals are used to report higher levels of sexual desire and compulsive sexual behaviors. Literature showed a lack of comparisons between perceived level of desire in hetero and gay population. This study aims to analyze some variables which could predict levels of sexual desire in both heterosexual and homosexual men such as sexual satisfaction, distress, sexism and dysfunctional sexual beliefs

Psycho-relational well-being in women with sexual pain: a preliminary study

Female sexual pain is a complex multi-factorial condition. Most of the research has focused on underlying biomedical factors. Although psychological and relational factors have been studied as possible correlates, data are still controversial. The aim of the present study was to investigate psychological and relational well-being in women who complain of sexual pain. The hypothesis was that sexual pain is associated with worse scores

Extraversion and neuroticism in sexually dysfunctional men suffering from erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation: a cross-sectional study

The role of personality traits in sexual complaints and dysfunctions is ever more evident. However, the literature is very scarce as to the possible relationships between such personality traits and specific sexual dysfunctions like ED, PE or both, their subtypes as to time of onset and severity levels. The main aim of the present study was to investigate if Neuroticism and Extraversion have different roles and trends in men suffering from PE and/or ED, both lifelong and acquired. Moreover, we verified if, by adopting DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria for diagnosing PE, some differences emerged in percentages of diagnosed cases. The sample consisted of 222 patients aged 18-70. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) was used to assess erectile function, and the Premature Ejaculation Severity Index (PESI) was used to assess the severity of PE dysfunction. Neuroticism and Extraversion were measured with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R). In our results, Neuroticism and Extraversion were dependent on the kind of sexual dysfunction and its severity. These results suggest that type, time of onset and severity of sexual dysfunctions should be considered as related to specific personality characteristics and vice versa

Accreditation of dental care services ”“: a proposal for a logical model

The National Accreditation Organization published in 2010, the Brazilian Manual of Accreditation for Healthcare Providers. This manual provides the guidelines for the development of an accreditation process for healthcare providers; however, it does not provide standards for a dental accreditation process. The aim of this study was to conceptualize the accreditation of dental care services and present a logical model that can anchor the development of a tool for accreditation of dental care services in Brazil. The Brazilian Manual of Accreditation for providers of health care services of the National Accreditation Organization (ONA) provides guidelines for the development of the accreditation process in health care institutions; however, it does not provide standards for the dental accreditation process. The model proposed has three foci of analysis, six described sections and thirteen described subsections, all considering relevant aspects concerning high quality providers of dental care services. Accreditation was possible to conceptualize and present a logical model which was designed for the accreditation of Units for Provision of Dental Care Services (UPDCS) - (UPSAO in Portuguese) and Complexes for Provision of Dental Care Services (CPDCS) - (CPSAO in Portuguese)

Seeded excitation avalanches in off-resonantly driven Rydberg gases

We report an experimental investigation of the facilitated excitation dynamics in off-resonantly driven Rydberg gases by separating the initial off-resonant excitation phase from the facilitation phase, in which successive facilitation events lead to excitation avalanches. We achieve this by creating a controlled number of initial seed excitations. Greater insight into the avalanche mechanism is obtained from an analysis of the full counting distributions. We also present simple mathematical models and numerical simulations of the excitation avalanches that agree well with our experimental results.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

La concezione relativistica della devianza e della criminalità. Un racconto di Italo Calvino

[The relativistic conception of deviance and criminality. A story by Italo Calvino] In her paper, the Author takes a cue from a youthful story by Italo Calvino to illustrate the relativistic nature of the concepts of deviance and criminality: that is, there are no acts and behaviors considered deviant or criminal at all times and in all societies. Retracing classical and modern literature, the Author links the elaboration of these concepts to a social construction of them, in the sense that the societies themselves define what is deviant and what is not

Plastic buckling of thin and moderately thin plates and shells: classic problems and new perspectives

Elastic-plastic instability of structures is an extensive field which encompasses a broad category of civil and mechanical engineering problems and involves several topics such as the physical and mechanical characterization of materials, yield criteria, different theories of plasticity and phenomena related to geometric nonlinearities, especially for thin and moderately thin plates and shells. The aim of this work is to investigate the plastic buckling of plates and shells subjected to different loading conditions with respect to the phenomenon of the plastic buckling paradox. Following the proposal of a new analytical approach to the problem, which throws light on the fundamental differences in the use of the flow theory and of the deformation theory of plasticity, by means of an extensive numerical investigation on cylindrical shells with different geometrical and material properties, some fundamental limitations of the modern numerical nonlinear analyses conducted by the use of the Finite Elements are highlighted and discussed in detail

Epistemología, axiología y aprendizaje de la ciencia en el aula

Con el propósito de estudiar la interacción en pedagogía, ciencia y metaciencia, se da a conocer, el estudio epistemológico, que se presenta en dos planos? el primero plano se ubica en la presentación de una base documental de la enseñanzaaprendizaje, en el enfoque positivista y conductista en la producción del conocimiento desde el siglo XIX, XX y XXI. El segundo plano epistemológico, al aula como ámbito espacial y centro de acción de los procesos actuales que allí viven los docentes y los discentes, incluye el tema de la ciencia desde los modos de impartir y producir el conocimiento en el proceso de enseñanzaaprendizaje? como en lo que se refiere a la concepción que de ella y su producto se moviliza desde diversas instancias de la dinámica social, incluyendo la educación, con el objetivo de contribuir con el tendido del puente epistemología axiología aprendizaje de la ciencia. El desarrollo de este estudio, se da a conocer investigaciones de diferentes autores que canalizan la preocupación detectada y el estudio del pensamiento pedagógico y metacientífico de profesores de la enseñanza de la didáctica y de la ciencias? cuyos hallazgos nos aproximan a las verdades provisionales, como un intento de resolver el vacío teórico o epistemológico del trabajo docente – aprendizaje metaciencia y producción del conocimiento de la ciencia, tiene como propósito dar a conocer la interacción pedagogía, ciencia y metaciencia? considerando el aula el ámbito espacial y centro de acción de los procesos que allí viven los docentes y estudiantes e incluye el tema de la ciencia y la concepción que de ella se tiene, a nivel de educación superior. Para ello se emplean lineamientos teóricos cognitivos, conductistas y constructivistas, a fin de develar la estructura y la dinámica en un espacio para el aprendizaje. El estudio se abordará bajo el enfoque cualitativo de una investigación fenomenológica en la interacción docentediscente en el aula? se enmarca en una metodología de tipo descriptivadocumental. Se propone con el estudio el desarrollo, de un modelo educativo socio cognitivo, producto de una investigación cualitativa de la dinámica de aula, entre la epistemología – axiología – aprendizaje, centrado en un paradigma de desarrollo integral, sobre la base de una didáctica científicocrítica

Genotoxic stress modulates the release of exosomes from multiple myeloma cells capable of activating NK cell cytokine production: role of HSP70/TLR2/NF-kB axis

Exosomes are a class of nanovesicles formed and released through the late endosomal compartment and represent an important mode of intercellular communication. The ability of anticancer chemotherapy to enhance the immunogenic potential of malignant cells mainly relies on the establishment of the immunogenic cell death (ICD) and the release of damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Here, we investigated whether genotoxic stress could promote the release of exosomes from multiple myeloma (MM) cells and studied the immunomodulatory properties they exert on NK cells, a major component of the antitumor immune response playing a key role in the immunosurveillance of MM. Our findings show that melphalan, a genotoxic agent used in MM therapy, significantly induces an increased exosome release from MM cells. MM cell-derived exosomes are capable of stimulating IFNg production, but not the cytotoxic activity of NK cells through a mechanism based on the activation of NF-kB pathway in a TLR2/ HSP70-dependent manner. Interestingly, HSP70 positive exosomes are primarily found in the bone marrow (BM) of MM patients suggesting that they might have a crucial immunomodulatory action in the tumor microenvironment. We also provide evidence that the CD56high NK cell subset is more responsive to exosome-induced IFNg production mediated by TLR2 engagement. All together, these findings suggest a novel mechanism of synergism between chemotherapy and antitumor innate immune responses based on the drug-promotion of nanovesicles exposing DAMPs for innate receptors

The use of digital technologies, impulsivity and psychopathological symptoms in adolescence

Abstract: Background and aims: Past research on the associations between psychopathological symptoms and technological-based addictions, i.e., Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and Social Media Addiction (SMA), showed contradictory results in adolescents and adult populations. The present study investigated correlations between adolescents’ psychopathological risks and impulsivity, IGD and SMA. Methods: A sample of 656 participants (338 males; Mage = 16.32 years) was divided into three age groups (early, mid-, and late adolescence) and completed a battery of scales comprising the (i) Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short Form, (ii) Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, (iii) Barratt Impulsiveness Scale for Adolescents, and (iv) Symptom Checklist-90-R. Results: The significance of the correlations was not corroborated in the basic tables. Significant associations appeared only in the adolescent subgroups, sometimes for bivariate and sometimes for partial correlations and with different patterns of associations between males and females. Moreover, both technological addictions were correlated with impulsiveness in bivariate and partial correlations. Discussion and conclusions: Following a developmentally-oriented approach to determine the patterns of associations between technological behavioral addictions and psychopathology in the specific sub-phases of early-, mid- and late-adolescence, this exploratory research showed how these associations might change depending on the developmental phase and gender of the individual. Future research is needed to provide empirical evidence of specific emotional–psychopathological correlations